Ginny was right about
the magenta robes. They really did clash horribly with her hair,
though her friend seemed to be in her natural element. Ginny was
smiling and joking with each customer, happily ringing up their
purchases, finding everything they asked for with ease, and even
making appropriate suggestions for each prankster.

Hermione, on the other
hand, was floundering.

The children seemed to
know instinctively that she was a rule-abider, and to make matters
worse, Hermione had little knowledge of the products she was supposed
to be selling. Of course, she could identify a Canary Cream or a
Skiving Snackbox with little difficulty. She even knew how to
reverse the effects of most of the twin's wares, but Hermione's
talents did not lie in pranking, or knowing how to carry out a good
prank. She was great at flushing a prankster out, but helping the
customers devise a perfectly executed prank using Weasley's Wizard
Wheezes products… she failed miserably.

A boy who looked to be
around thirteen years old asked her what she thought was the best way
to get back at his little brother, who had turned his hair blue for
an entire week.

The boy frowned at her,
and said that Canary Creams were so last year.

Agitated by his
attitude when she was just trying to help, for Merlin's sake,
Hermione felt the need to explain herself, "Look, I only got
detention once at Hogwarts. And that was for being out after
curfew!"

"You never pranked
anybody? What kind of a witch are you?"

Hermione huffed. "The
prefect kind!"

The boy looked at her,
torn between disbelief and fear. "I think I'll ask that other
girl what she thinks. Thanks anyway." He hastily weaved over to
Ginny who smiled, listened to his question and responded with a face
that clearly said, "Oh sure, we've got just what you're looking
for!"

Hermione sighed
miserably at the sight.

And it wasn't just
the pranksters she failed with. When trying to sell a young girl on
some of the items in the Wonder Witch line, the witch had raised her
eyebrow at Hermione skeptically and said, "You don't even know
how to wear make-up, do you?"

To which Hermione had
glared, slapped a Patented Daydream Charm into the girl's hand, and
said, "Here. I've used this before. Works great."
Then stalked to the back, and locked herself in the bathroom for ten
minutes.

And that was just the
morning.

Things only got worse
from there, until George finally took pity on her (or, more likely,
worried that she'd drive customers away) and put her behind the
till to ring up purchases, and sent Verity to work on the floor.

During their lunch
hour, they closed down the shop and owled out for sandwiches from the
Leaky Cauldron. While the others ate in the back, George told
Hermione to grab her sandwich and come with him into the shop.
Hermione did what he asked, but dragged her feet. This was going
horribly, and there was no way George hadn't noticed how awful she
was.

"You're going to
fire me, aren't you?"

"Why would I fire
you?"

"Because I'm
terrible at this! The kids hate me, and the older ones see right
through me. I might as well be wearing my prefect badge and taking
house points from them."

"Now, now," George
chided gently. "You just don't have the right mindset yet.
You're just thinking about how much trouble they're going to get
into. Just turn it around and think about how you'd get away with
it. I know you, love, and you've broken countless rules. You can
do this, Hermione.

"It's our fault
really. We just threw you into the deep end without training you up
at all. I didn't even explain the system to you! No wonder you're
so bad at this!"

"Okay, that's not
helping."

"Sorry, love." He
planted a kiss on her mouth, and led her slowly around the shop and
explained their mysterious system. All of the prank items were
organized in, what was to Hermione, a shockingly sophisticated
manner. In the center of the shop was a large circular shelving
structure, on top of which was a large bronze weasel with a
mischievous look on its face. In one hand, the weasel held a dung
bomb, while the other hand was behind its back hiding crossed
fingers. On the shelves below the (slightly creepy, Hermione
thought) weasel, was where the pranks for individuals were located.
The products were arranged in order of intensity. The short-term
pranks (such as the Snackboxes and Canary Creams) were grouped
together, and as one walked around the dais, the pranks grew worse
(or as George called it, more brilliant). The same system was
repeated on the long shelf to the right, pranks for groups ("Such
as the Slytherin Quidditch team," George explained.) And again on
the shelves on the right hand wall, which was filled with items that
had the ability to affect the entire school. Those were the big
ticket items. Along the left hand wall the Wonder Witch items were
located in all their pink glory, as well as a section of games,
Muggle 'magic' tricks, and other miscellaneous products. It
actually made sense to Hermione. At least now she would be able to
direct customers to the correct part of the store.

Then George took her
around again and pointed out their best sellers, which included the
Canary Creams. Oh, that bratty little kid was such a liar,
Hermione thought. He also grabbed a shopping bag and filled it with
popular Wonder Witch products and then handed the bag to Hermione.

"What's all this?"

"Well, you can't
very well talk up what you haven't used," he explained. "I
doubt you'll ever use a Portable Swamp if I gave you one, but these
you will. At least then you can explain the effects to the
customers."

Hermione perused the
little jars of make-up and potions, and wondered if Ginny would be up
for helping her with them. Maybe they could have a girl's night at
her new flat… it sounded like fun.

"I threw in a couple
daydream charms as well," George said with a smirk. "I heard you
say that you liked those."

She blushed and rolled
her eyes.

He laughed and pulled
her close for a kiss.

The afternoon went a
bit better after that. A wary looking woman came trailing into the
shop after her over-excited six year old, and Hermione was able to
direct the child towards the mildest tricks she knew of. His mother
realized what she was doing, and mouthed a grateful thank you over
the child's head while he was delightedly waving around a toy wand,
which shot out nothing more than gold confetti when waved in the
right pattern. It was Hermione's first successful sale, and though
Ginny laughed, Hermione was rather pleased with herself.

The shop closed at
seven, and Verity flooed home as soon as Fred flipped the sign on the
door. Ginny lingered as long as she could, but Mrs. Weasley
eventually poked her head through the fire and ordered her to come
home immediately.

"We open at ten,"
Fred told his sister. "Don't be late!"

"No worries, brother
mine," Ginny said, and flooed away.

Fred eyed the fire and
turned to George, "Did you see how she was flirting with all the
customers today?"

"I know! I wanted to
tell her to leave off, but those prats just kept buying more stuff."

"She wasn't
flirting!" Hermione said. "She was being friendly."

"Well," George said
sourly, "I'm rather glad you weren't being friendly.
I'm a jealous bloke, you know."

Hermione didn't know
how to respond to that, as she wasn't sure whether she should be
offended for her own sake, Ginny's, or angry with George… though,
for what she wasn't quite sure. So, she opted for the obvious.

"She was being nice!
And helpful!" The twins weren't having it. Hermione rolled her
eyes. "Fine. Be prats. I'm going home."

"Hermione, come on,"
George said. Fred turned to head up to their flat, and mumbled that
he'd get the firewhiskey out.

"No. Ginny was great
today, and she doesn't deserve you saying all that about her."
Hermione shook her head. "This isn't even worth arguing about.
I'll see you tomorrow."

George was wearing the
same panicked look Ron wore when things were spiraling out of his
control. She kissed his mouth lightly, and flooed to her flat. She
threw her work clothes on the floor, including the god-awful magenta
robes, and changed into a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. In the
kitchen she realized that she hadn't yet gone to get groceries.

"Great," she
muttered to herself. She pulled her jeans back on, grabbed the bag
of Wonder Witch products, and flooed to the Burrow.

Ginny was eating her
dinner alone at the table, and Hermione plopped down beside her.

"Long time no see,"
Ginny said.

"I haven't gone
shopping."

Ginny summoned a plate
from the kitchen, and Hermione served herself. Mrs. Weasley had made
a mysterious looking casserole, but it turned out to be quite
delicious.

"I suppose so,"
Hermione said grudgingly, turning her wand on her own face.

"Can I keep this?"

"Sure," Hermione
shrugged. "It's not my color."

Ginny tossed the
lipstick onto her dresser, and turned with her hands on her hips to
face Hermione. "Okay, now spill."

"Spill what?"

"One, you've been
acting like you and Ron just had a fight, and two, I fully expected
you to be snogging my brother's brains out tonight. So what's
going on?"

Ginny had always been
hyper-perceptive, though this wasn't one of those times when
Hermione appreciated it. "I argued with your brother's a bit
before I left."

"Over?" Ginny asked
leadingly.

Hermione scoffed a bit
to let Ginny know that she thought the whole thing was ridiculous.
"They were going on and on about how you were flirting with all the
customers today, and I said that you were just being friendly and
helpful. And things just went from there."

"Oh," Ginny said
slowly. She bit her lip. "You know, Hermione, I was flirting a
little."

"You were?"

"Well, just a
little!" Ginny said defensively. "You know how boys are. A
little smile and a giggle here and there… well, they'll buy just
about anything."

"Ginny."

"It's not a big
deal, Hermione. It's harmless, really. I mean, look at it this
way, they're giving us something so we give a little back, and if
it's just a smile and laughing at their masterful prank plans, so
much the better."

"I don't—"

"Just give it a shot
tomorrow. Just once. Just one little giggle."

Ginny sounded like she
was plotting the downfall of Draco Malfoy, and was so deadly serious
that Hermione had to laugh. "Sure, Gin."

"Oh, I'm so sure."
Hermione tossed the Wonder Witch products back into the bag. "I'm
going to go home now."

"I didn't make you
angry, did I?"

"No, you've got a
point… even if I completely disagree with you, it is harmless
enough. Of course now I have to apologize to your brothers."

"Well, that I am
sorry for, but thank you for sticking up for me. Even though I
didn't deserve it."

Ginny reapplied her
lipstick and said, "Well, I think I'm going to go find Harry.
We'll see if this stuff really is smudge-proof." She made a
kissing noise, which really wasn't necessary, and smiled happily.

Hermione just laughed
at her friend. "Goodnight, Ginny. Have fun."

"Night."

George was on sitting
on her sofa when Hermione arrived at her flat. He eyed her
apprehensively and didn't say a word.

Hermione dropped the
bag and took a deep breath. "You and Fred were right. I was
wrong. Your sister is a little flirt."

George struggled to
hide a smile, and failed. "Well, I suppose I forgive you."

"Forgive me? I was
just defending Ginny."

He could obviously feel
that the ground he was treading on was very thin indeed, and said
slowly, "Then I suppose I don't forgive you?"

She hugged him. "Thank
you."

George let out a long,
relieved breath. "You are the strangest girl."

Hermione curled up next
to him, leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Sleep
was going to be glorious tonight. George combed his fingers
through her hair. "So," he said, "was this our first fight?"

"Oh please,"
Hermione scoffed. "This was nothing."

"Nothing?" his
voice broke.

Hermione, unconcerned,
brought her mouth to his, and George forgot to be worried about the
time when they would have a fight that was something.

-----

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